VCCircle Healthcare Investment Summit 2014 to be held on September 25 at The Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai, will bring large gathering of senior hospital directors, CEOs, doctors, medico-entrepreneurs, healthcare startups, investors and other key stakeholders who are the driving force behind setting up high standards in the field of hospital equipment, pharmaceuticals, medical technologies, innovations, delivery and other low cost-high quality healthcare services and products.

Talking about the dominant trend driving investors’ interest in the healthcare industry, Hari Buggana of Invascent, says "Rising per capita incomes in rural and semi-urban India are driving the demand for better quality healthcare. Several thousands of crores of investment are required to bridge this significant gap between demand and supply of good quality secondary and tertiary care services in non-urban regions of India where majority of the population lives. The government's inability to satisfy this demand has created a huge opportunity for private sector healthcare providers".

Chandrasekhar of Forus Health adds "There is a clear need for technology at product and implementation stages in healthcare; there is a lot of VC interest in this area."

Dr R Kishore Kumar of Cloudnine says, "Single specialty hospitals are very attractive to many investors for many reasons — smaller investment, easy scalability, quicker returns and much lower risk compared with multi-specialty hospitals. But one has to remember that not ALL single specialty hospitals are scalable. For instance, many operate 24/7 and quality, care, round the clock nursing & medical care - that are offered need to match throughout 24/7; therefore, it’s unlikely for such small hospitals to be so easily scalable as comapred to small OPD clinics that work just 12 hours a day and don't need medical or nursing care 24/7".

Dialysis care provider NephroPlus founder Vikram Vuppala says, "There is a lot of low quality or high price supply in the market which are tough to generate returns for Investors. But due to the increasing awareness of all stakeholders [patients & attendants, payors (patients, employers, insurance companies and government)], this new large gap of affordable and high quality healthcare solutions is catching investor's interest. This trend is pushing focused single specialty factories to grow in India since they have large economies of scale both in terms of cost structure and quality improvements.”

Siddharth Dhondiyal of India Value Fund Advisors adds, "PE investments done during 2007-2010 which are maturing now are likely to offer opportunities for M&A and consolidation in the tertiary care space."

Shiraz Bugwadia of o3 Capital says, “Within the pharma segment, we are clearly seeing a decent amount of traction from the Investor community towards domestic formulation plays that are growing rapidly as well as focused on select therapeutic segments such as women’s health, nephro, etc.”

In addition to spotting some latest trends attracting investors in the healthcare ecosystem, the event will host special sessions focusing on:

The summit will be followed by VCCircle Healthcare Awards 2014 which aims to recognise healthcare companies which have not just made an impact in patients’ life but have also created a culture of innovation & excellence across the Indian healthcare industry.

Our jury members this year represent luminaries involved in and committed to shaping the Indian healthcare industry:

Rajen Padukone, Group President, Manipal Education and Medical Group

Ajay Kumar Vij, Co-Founder & CEO, Asian Healthcare Fund

Dr. Om Manchanda, CEO, Dr. Lal PathLabs Pvt. Ltd

Nominations for awards are closed; watch out for shortlisted nominations under each category.